Thursday, May 05, 2011

A week ago, a group of courageous Singaporeans began a campaign to win the hearts and minds of their fellow citizens. They have limited resources but are driven by conviction, passion and a desire to do what is right for Singaporeans. They echoed how we feel in their speeches. They inspired us with a vision for a better tomorrow. They fought the best fight they could with what little resources they had to give us a chance to bring about change in Singapore.

After 45 years, this country has reached a cross-road, these men and women have done all they can against great obstacles to create an alternative path that leads to a better future. It is now up to us which path we choose to take....

29 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Lucky;

thank You too for playing your part, many have got to know and learn much from your blog. Me am one who has benefitted immensely.

Yes, all the Alternative Parties Members deserve tributes.After spending few hours with NSP in their campaign activities, me can attests that there is much sacrifice for being an Alternative Party Member. There is long hours of back breaking toils and little assurance in being elected.

There is also much risk while interacting with members of the public, especially having to canvass for a political stake. A wrong statement or claim could mean self destruction.

I too like to say a big Thank You!And hope that they will have success on the 7 May 2011. Let us give them the support they deserve.

No different lah. I think the GE2011 outcome will be 87:0 clean sweep by PAP because of GRC system and daft voters. There will not be real change unless the youth group and silent majority swing to oppositions.

After running around like a headless chicken for 9 days, the PAP is now playing its last psychological card.

They got LHL to apologise for mistakes.

They are now using every means possible to project an image of confidence and strangth.

Having failed with direct intimidation, they are now trying indirect intimidation. Meaning that if you are an opposition supporter, you are a minority. So better be careful and think twice if you want to vote Opposition.

Will the tactic work or will it backfire?

The results of GE 2011 had been decided long before Nomination Day. The crying, apologies and now propoganda add to the politcal theatre. People are however not stupid and can think for their own self interest. The PAP's campaign message resontes with those who are doing well and who are scared to lose what they have got. For those who are not doing well and who are finding daily life a struggle, it is the Opposition message which makes sense. Since the PAP is made up mainly elites, they naturally think most Singaporeans are doing well. It is hard for them to understand that the majority of Singaporeans are not doing well and are in fact struggling through life.

As part of final campaign, we now hear whispers of secret polls and studies which claim to give up to date reading of the ground. If you are a statistician, you will know this is plain impossible. To achive a 95% confidence interval, you need a RANDOM sample of 384. Multiply this across all the GRCs being contested, and you will need thousands of observations. This is especially if you want to go down to the consituiency level.

It is impossible to sample such a large number of people without it being publicly noticed. This is especially given the heightened political awareness during this period. And if it was noticed that the PAP was doing such a poll, you will see this all over the Opposition web sites, especially since political polling is against the law.

Even if the poll was conducted, there is still the time needed to enter the data and tabulate up the results. Given the short time frame involved, it is logistically impossible to get this done.

More so if fgds or focus group discussions are involved. A FGD involving 10 to 15people takes about an hour to conduct. The result is mainly qualitative and it will take an analyst about a day to do a decent report on 1 group. Multiply by all the areas contested and we again have something which is logistically impossible.

Which leaves us with the PAP's kopitiam research. This is your large group of grassroots people who fan out and attempt to get feedback on what is happening on the gound. It is imperfect, biased and wldly inaccurate.

What's worse is that the grassroots is dominated by the pre-65 group. Hence SM's comment that he is not able to feel the young. This is because his grassroot of old timers cannot connect with the P65 generation which has been showing up in large numbers at the opposition rallies.

The honest truth therefore is that the PAP doesn't have anymore secret or advanced knowledge of what the electoral landscape is like after what has been an unprecedented election campaign.

One great reason to vote out the PAP"As it stands, Tanjong Pagar GRC today constitutes itself, Queenstown, Tiong Bahru, Tanglin, Bukit Merah, Bukit Timah, Orchard Road, Novena and Newton with public Housing being non-existent in the last three areas. "

"though i am very against the influx of FTs, i still treat them like a fellow being and have never look at them with a different perspective. I was having lunch with a PRC colleague. shes a 24yr old gal who just graduated from NTU and now working in a MNC while waiting for PR approval. just started a casual topic like, wad do u like about this country and how are u coping so we get the standard reply. wad stuns me, was the answer to my next question.

Blessed IrenPart 2

The conversation....

me: " so wad makes u decide to come here"......PRC: " i didnt"

me: " wa, ur parents force u here or ur bf is here"

PRC: "neither, ur SG gahment invited us here"

me: " huh, wad do u mean"

PRC: " ur MOE went to our school in our village and told us they URGENTLYneed students here, infact they were hardselling the whole scheme and many of us signed up"

me: " huh, wad did they offer"

PRC: " they offer us, ALL Expenses paid for our fees in NTU, including lodging and we even get pocket money"

me: *mouth open

PRC: "on top of that, they have send me the INVITATION letter to apply for PR after we grad"

i seriously begin to wonder the magitude of the FT problem has many more sides that many of us do not know.

every election is watershed but what happens later is all the same.. ie nothing changes. question i am asking now is, will we be getting the 2 opposition seats via the grcs or will the opposition be wiped out in this gambit. i think it is 50 50, reason being that the opposition doesnt seem formidable or congruent compared to last time except for the noises ..rhetoric?

Thank You Very Much, Lucky & Alternative Parties, for your courage & determination to offer alternative solutions to improve the lives of Singaporeans. I'm with you all the way, resilient & strong. May you all get elected into Parliament!

QUOTE:Though each of the opposition rallies attracted tens of thousands spectators, and there may be in total 200,000 attended the rallies, but 200,000 is only 9.09% of the total voters of 2.2 millions.

Majority of the 90.91% (2 millions) voters may not be aware of those issues raised during the rallies....>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I agree, THE OPPOSE have ALL turned up for the rallies. As you'd righfully observed, they are LESS than 10% voters. This means 90% will vote PAP!! yoohoo evrything is STABLE.

The theory that Malays form a large part of the pro-PAP majority seems to be a point raised by someone, and I have heard it before. I do not know where this theory of race-motivated politics, that the next largest minority always chooses not to "rock the boat", and hence votes for an incumbent party, comes from. There isn't much of specific data to back this up, and a lot of it is just hodge-podge speculation.

What MM Lee said about the Malay muslims not integrating with the rest of society has hurt the malay community so badly that it will cost them serious votes this time round. Don't worry. The malay votes are not going to the PAP this time.

Aljunied will go to the opposition. Stay awake this Saturday at night and let see what happens.

This Sunday, PAP will return to power. All the opposition will lose except 1 SMC. Hougang will remain with WP.

There will be minor losers from the opposition who will then be asked to take up the 9 NCMPs positions in parliament.

Aljunied will return to PAP once again.

They have planned out for this. Hence the 9 NCMPs positions which they crafted.

Most of the opposition will fall for the trap. They will take it up.

All 9 NCMPs will then debate policies in parliament but they won't have any teeth or muscle to vote for or against the policies.

The speaker of parliament will limit the maximum number of questions that each opposition NCMP will ask in parliament for the reason that there are many who are asking questions. The 9 NCMPs positions will be used against the oppositions.

We will then witness the ultimate political apathy in action 'live' on TV during the parliamentary debates on Channel 5.

Singaporeans will see that whatever is said will still be overuled by the PAPies.

This will seal and fossilised the Singaporeans' political apathy for a long time.

Fear will increase after this election.

And a new era of corporate Singapore will be ushered in.

The reason this is happening is because there are many Singaporeans who complain of the government policies but will forget the incompetencies of the PAPies because of the money that was given out.

People forget when they spend their money. Singaporeans forget. And they have a track record for succumbing to irrational fear and their heavily conditioned kiasu minds will help them to easily forget the government's incompetencies over the last 5 years.

The government will then sing a new tune to an old song.

The machinery is there. Just run it.

This prophecy will come true.

So my advice: move out, do not waste time. Plan to move to another country where policies and quality of life are better as in these sort of countries there is a massive number of politically consciousness individuals who knows what it means to be a human being and to care for others in socirty.

The Singaporean psyche has been contaminated and ingrained with too many years of conditioning since a child enters primary one.

We don't have a critical mass of Singaporeans who have had their political and moral consciousness raised with regards to these matters that concerns us as a society.

The opposition needs to decondition the fear and kiasuitic values that has been ingrained in the hearts and minds of Singaporeans since birth.

The only way to do that is to educate the voters to take a moral perspective to all the cock ups that has happnened in our society.

Thhey need to consistently make and take the moral stances in all the issues. Since morality is low on the PAPies' side, the opposition needs to take this approach.

Here is to you too Lucky. Your immense contribution to the cause of democracy and the dismantling of the failed system of governance of the PAP. You have tirelessly contributed insightful analysis that debunked the myths and falsehoods perpetuated by the incumbents to your readers. Now it is in our hands to vote for change and good luck to all true Singaporeans.

I've been analysing the elections with two friends - one is an experienced political consultant and the other a psychiatry expert witness. I've been in a daze in the last few hours about what just happened but these two helped make sense of it all.

As you well know, with 24 hours to go to Polling Day....the ground sentiment seemed to have swung in PAP's favour.

Basically, it appears that the Singapore electorate has fallen for one of the oldest tricks on the political book, albeit one immaculately executed - The Good Cop, Bad Cop Routine! This is commonly used in US foreign policy and domestic politics...the best example of this would be the Bush-Cheney act in the 2004 presidential elections. Cheney played Bad Cop to devastating effect, taking out Kerry and cleared the way for Bush to win in the starring role of Good Cop.

We have just witnessed the Singapore version in the last 3 days.

First, you have Bad Cop LKY come out blundering with threats, blackmail and his usual bully-boy ways. Now, this scares an estimated 15-20% of the swing voters into going back into the arms of the PAP but it also alienates an approximately equal or slightly smaller percentage of voters against the PAP. So zero-minimal net loss for opposition

The second step is Good Cop LSL coming out and saying sorry. This brings back the LKY-alienated voters while keeping the fearful voters in the PAP fold. The result is a huge net gain in the swing votes. What aids the Lees is that the electorate does not know which cop is more powerful - is it the Bad Cop or the Good Cop? You are confused, you are uncertain, and in that uncertainty is when you are most susceptible.

Hours later, it is polling day. You cast your vote. What has happened, the Good Cop Bad Cop routine, is still in your subconscious. Most people who fall for it will never know they've been suckered. A few will slowly realise it.

The electorate wakes up on Sunday, and everyone is amazed that the PAP has won 86-1.

Impossible they think, the ground was so bitter! How did the PAP perform a near clean sweep.

Welcome....the will of the Singapore people has just been thwarted by the Good Cop, Bad Cop routine.

If you don't want this to happen, please educate your fellow voters about this!

I was at Serangoon Stadium. The positive is that WP has managed to attract a large number of females. The negative is that there were hardly any Malays. Pls mobilize ur readers with Malay friends to spread the word. Do not leave things to chance!

i wonder if any of you have actually testing the waters of politicians both ruling and opposition? I wouldn't trust them for too long. The truth is: if politicians are there for the people, they will not have petty minds. The only thing we could do is to make sure that they serve the people and not serve the people because they want to have the power. Tough decision, isn't it?